Mobile folding choral risers are useful for enabling choral groups to travel to and perform at locations that lack a permanent tiered structure. Typically, they include a plurality of tiered decks that move to and from a horizontal orientation corresponding to an unfolded, use position of the riser and a vertical orientation corresponding to a folded, storage position of the riser. For strength and stability purposes, existing mobile folding choral risers typically have heavy decks and a heavy folding frame, and are therefore difficult to lift from an unfolded, use position to a folded, moving and storage position.
In addition, a mobile folding choral riser typically includes a plurality of stabilizing feet, the feet configured to contact the floor to resist undesired movement of the riser when the riser is in the unfolded, use position and to lift off of the floor to permit free movement of the choral riser on casters when the riser is in the folded, moving and storage position. The feet are typically attached to folding portions of the riser proximate to at least the outermost corners of the riser. For example, feet may be attached to the front corners of a folding deck linkage, and to a folding back railing linkage. In existing choral risers, the back railing linkage is operatively connected to the folding deck linkage so that a back railing member is constrained to be raised towards the folded position whenever the decks are being folded and to be lowered towards the unfolded position whenever the decks are being unfolded. In this manner, the feet connected to the back railing member are configured to automatically lift off the floor to facilitate movement of the riser when the riser is partially or fully folded, and to automatically contact the floor to facilitate stability of the riser when the riser is fully unfolded. However, this arrangement has disadvantages, as a partially folded riser will tend to be pushed backward on its casters when a single user is attempting to fold the riser by lifting from the front (bottom) deck.
A need therefore exists for a mobile folding choral riser that is safe, stable, and easy to fold to and from a use position and a storage position.